‘Ready Player One’ Review

An affectionate ode to ‘70s and ‘80s pop culture wrapped in a bold vision of a future where reality and unreality are no longer binary concepts, or an insufferable procession of cultural name-drops revelling unquestioningly in the echo-chamber of nostalgia? However you view Ernest Cline’s 2011 debut novel Ready Player One, it’s undoubtedly an impressive piece of world-building. And if you’re going to choose a filmmaker to realise that vision, you could do worse than Steven Spielberg. (I mean, he already tarted up a pretty limited novel by the name of Jaws…)

Cline’s text doesn’t admit to much of ‘80s produce being tacky and/or downright terrible, but that’s the point: the kids of 2044 are atavistically absorbing the inner joy of an old,